Millions of people who were watching the game five of the NBA Finals between San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat on Sunday night, were in for a treat - Jay-Z announced his upcoming "Magna Carta Holy Grail" album through a three-minute commercial of Samsung that appeared before the end of the first half.
Fans of Jay-Z will get the solo album of the hiphop icon, for free, if they're also owners of Samsung devices. The album will be rolled out for free to one million users of Samsung devices through a Magna Carta app that only they can use. Owners of Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 will be able to get the album on July 4 12:01 a.m. EST or three days before its official release on July 7.
Washington Journal reported that a reliable source told the publication that Samsung paid Jay-Z $5 per album making the artist rake in $5 million in instant sales even before it hit the market. Aside from the monetary gain, the deal with Samsung gave Jay-Z an excellent opportunity to work with a globally-known brand.
According to The Next Web, the downloaded "Magna Carta Holy Grail" album cannot be shared by Samsung users to other mobile users until the album has been rolled out to the public.
There were earlier reports that the rap artist might have earned as much as $20 million from the Samsung deal.
While the artist gets an instant platinum, Samsung gets a good push to box out Apple that recently unveiled the iTunes Radio service during the recent WWDC 2013. Apple's online radio streaming service will allow users to listen to certain tracks prior to their official market release.
The three-minute ad featured Jay-Z brainstorming with Timbaland, Rick Rubin, Swizz Beatz and Pharrell William in a studio. A Samsung Galaxy Tab was also seen in the video.
"The album is about, like this duality of how do you navigate through this whole thing, through success, through failures, through all this and remain yourself," Jay-Z told Rubin in the video.
"We don't have any rules. Everyone's trying to figure it out. We need to write the new rules," the music icon continued as some piano instrumental played in the background.
"The idea is to really finished the album and drop it. Giving it to the world at one time and letting them share it, and it goes out," Jay-Z hinted.
Samsung's previous endorsers included Paul Rudd, Seth Rogan, Tim Burton and LeBron James.
Samsung, Jay-Z and San Antonio Spurs had a good reason to celebrate Sunday night - a million albums sold before the official debut and a team that is a win away from being the NBA champions.
Watch the full "Magna Carta Holy Grail" ad below:
